Cox expanding its home security/home automation reach

ATLANTA—After a successful trial of its home security/home automation offering in Arizona, Cox Communications is now expanding Cox Home Security to six other states.

“The service will be available in the California, New England-Cleveland (Rhode Island, Connecticut and Ohio) and Oklahoma regions by mid-November,” Todd Smith, director of media relations for the cable company, told Security Systems News in an email interview. “And we plan to launch in Virginia by the end of the year.”

Cox Communications began trialing its new home security/home automation in Tucson, Ariz., in the summer of 2011, and expanded the service to customers in Phoenix in April.

Cox, based here and one of the largest cable entertainment and broadband service providers in the country, said last summer that the trials had been so successful it planned to expand Cox Home Security—which is professionally installed and monitored by a third-party provider the company has declined to name—to other markets. Now the company is identifying the markets where the expanded service will be offered.

A promotion to consumers in the new markets for a special introductory offer of Cox Home Security asks: “What if you could control your home from anywhere?” Then it says: “Get ready for the end of the ‘What-ifs.’ Get ready for Cox Home Security.”

It tells customers: “A revolution in home security is under way ... and Cox Home Security is at the forefront. With this revolutionary system, you'll be able to protect yourself, your family and your home like never before. You'll also be able to connect to your home and loved ones for ultimate peace of mind.”

The promotion says that with its wireless technology, Cox Home Security will enable customers to manage their system with a touch-screen control panel, a smartphone or through the Web; control lights and thermostats; watch live and captured video; receive text alerts and emails when the system senses a pre-defined event; check on family members through secure streaming video, and have protection 24/7 through “trained specialists and a dedicated monitoring center.”

During its trial in Arizona, Cox became an active member of the security industry in that state, joining the Arizona Alarm Association. Will it make the same effort in the new locations where it’s expanding? “As we launch in additional markets, we will continue to get involved with the appropriate local home security organizations,” Smith told SSN.